Nikos Skalkottas

Nikos Skalkottas was one of the leading Greek composers of the 20th century and a member of the Second Viennese School. He was influenced by both the classical repertoire and the Greek tradition, and he produced a sizeable amount of tonal and atonal music in various forms and genres. He started violin lessons at the age of five with his father and uncle, who were both musicians, and later continued his studies at the Athens Conservatory and in Berlin. He decided to become a composer in 1923 and studied with Robert Kahn, Paul Juon, Kurt Weill, Philipp Jarnach, and Arnold Schoenberg, who highly regarded him as a pupil. He lived in Berlin from 1921 to 1933, where he composed more than 70 works, many of which were lost or destroyed. He also played violin in light orchestras to supplement his income. In 1931, he had a personal and artistic crisis that resulted in the end of his relationship with Matla Temko, a Russian-Jewish violinist with whom he had two children, and a possible fallout with Schoenberg. He did not compose anything for at least two years. In 1933, he was forced by poverty and debt to return to Athens, where he faced the hostility and indifference of the conservative musical establishment. He suffered a nervous breakdown and his passport was confiscated by the Greek authorities. He remained in Greece for the rest of his life, composing prolifically but with little recognition or support. He worked as a violinist in the Athens State Orchestra and taught privately. He married Maria Pangali, a pianist, in 1946 and had two sons with her. In 1949, at the age of 45 and shortly before the birth of his second son, he died of what appears to have been the rupture of a neglected common hernia, leaving some symphonic works with incomplete orchestration, and many completed works that were given posthumous premieres. His talent was more widely recognised after his death, thanks to the efforts of the Society of Skalkottas' Friends, which was founded by a group of friends and admirers. His music is now considered as one of the most original and significant contributions to modern Greek culture and to the development of 20th-century classical music.